On the heels of Earth Day, employees from The Grand Del Mar recently embarked on their annual habitat restoration project at the 4,100-acre Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. With the season’s abundant rainfall, volunteers faced a few different challenges this year.

According to the resort’s onsite naturalist, Dylan Jones, a specialist in sustainability and environmental issues, in addition to planting hundreds of indigenous shrubs — including coastal sage, needlegrass and elderberry — employees had to wrestle with removing abundant non-native foxtail and black mustard plants, now prevalent due to the deluge of rain. “With the heavy rainfall, the canyon is flourishing,” Jones explains. “Unfortunately non-native plants are also thriving and must be removed to allow native growth, which provides important food, shelter and nesting for indigenous animals.”